FLINT, MI -- At their annual meeting April 9 at 5:30 p.m. the Friends of the Flint Public Library will honor retired librarian and active Friends member Grace Tucker and the Library's public relations coordinator, Wanda Harden.

Both will receive the "Bookend Awards" for their service to the Library.

Immediately following at 6 p.m., the Friends will hold their "Annual Event" in the Library's Reading Room, where author and local Flint Policeman Brian Willingham will share stories of patrolling the city beat from his book “Soul of a Black Cop.”

Willingham is the author of two books, “Thunder Enlightening: The Poetry and Photography of a Black Man in Middle America” and “Soul of a Black Cop.”

Willingham received the Independent Publishers Award in 2007. He also received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from George W. Bush in 2007.

“Soul of a Black Cop” is used as required reading in many colleges and universities.

A Flint native, he served in the US Army in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall. He is currently a 15-year veteran of the Flint Police Department. He lives in Flint with his wife Rhonda and their three children.

Admission is free. The Flint Public Library is located at 1026 E. Kearsley St., Flint. For more information call the Friends of the Flint Public Library at 810.249-2578.